Arrival in the camp
Camp Westerbork
3 oktober 1942
Several thousand people were crammed in that one barracks.
The deportations of Jews in the Netherlands started in the fall of 1942. Since most Jews were living in Amsterdam, the Germans required the Amsterdam municipal police to assist them. During the “huge coming to get the Jews”, police officers lent the Germans a helping hand, often unwillingly. In smaller towns rural constables often picked Jews up individually to hand them over to the German authorities. Members of the military police corps were deployed to guard camp Westerbork and to escort Jews to and from the camp. In this way the Dutch polices got the rather unenviable reputation of an organization that collaborated with the enemy.